Reckless

Chapter 7| Connor Taylor [REWRITTEN]

"slow motion sparks, you've caught that chill, now don't deny it, but boys will be boys, oh, yes they will, they don't wanna define it"

i do not hook up • kelly clarkson

Seeing Dakota and his friends at the restaurant had come as a surprise. We'd established an unspoken rule early on in our relationship that we'd each stick to our respective sides of town. That meant he didn't go to the places Northshore populated, and I didn't impose on Ridgemount territory. I guess Dakota was becoming lax with that rule.

And what did it mean if he was?

We didn't stick around at the café after mine and Dakota's altercation. Trent switched our order to take-away and we'd hightailed out of there before Dakota had even returned to his table. Scott and Trent didn't question my haste, rightfully assuming the tension between us had snapped once again, resulting in my swollen eye that was quickly forming a colourful bruise.

Tension wasn't the only thing that had snapped though. I had too.

What had I been thinking? Kissing Dakota behind locked doors was one thing, but kissing him out in the open was reckless and unthinkable.

We'd been in a secluded area but that was no comfort to me given how easy it was to access. We could have easily been caught and where would I be then? Outed against my will and most certainly off the team. I couldn't afford to strike a match for a fire that I didn't want to burn.

My head rested against the backseat window as Trent drove us through the north side of town. Manicured lawns and suburban homes passed by in fleeting glances of scenery as I wracked my brain for answers to my reckless actions.

I'd long since given up on understanding why I was physically attracted to Dakota. The guy was intolerable on a good day with his conceited attitude and antagonistic provocations. Yet, people still thrust him into the spotlight and made him the centre of attention.

Some might've related his demeanour to a gravitational pull. I thought of it as more akin to a disease: a great inconvenience and hard to get rid of.

Still, that all seemed to go out the window when Dakota's hands were on my body, tugging at my hair and nails scratching across my collarbone, driving me crazy. I hated that someone I despised so much had such power over me.

I'd long since given up on the prospect that Dakota and I would ever get along. But for every argument we got into and every insult we threw each other's way, that hostility completed evaporated the second we fell into bed together. As though a switch had been flipped, we became different people between the sheets. Something heated and wild and explosive that set every one of my nerve endings on fire with the slightest touch.

I might have hated Dakota Anderson, but that boy knew how to fuck.

But now, having kissed him in public, something inside me had changed for that desire to arise. I had to figure out what it was quickly before the spark caught fire and burned everything to the ground.